Roma Finance rescues million pound barn and equestrian centre development as building society gets cold feet

Roma Finance, the Manchester-based lender, recently came to the rescue of the Finance Director for a well-known blue chip company who had been badly let down by one of the UK’s major building societies when they pulled the plug on a self-build mortgage.

The borrower was looking to buy a derelict barn for conversion into a highly specified luxury home in a beautiful setting in rural Worcestershire which would be worth over £1m on completion. The borrower, a former British international horse rider, was looking to add an equestrian centre with separate groomsman’s residence set in over 8 acres of land.

Roma Finance had initially provided a £210,000 facility to cover the site acquisition and the building society had agreed to fund the project. When the news came, just prior to the expiry of the loan, that the building society was pulling out of the self-build mortgage market, Roma Finance quickly stepped in and agreed to fund the entire £500,000 scheme and 100% of the build costs.

The construction took eight months and the borrower was then able to obtain a mainstream mortgage to exit the bridging loan. Scott Marshall, a director at Roma Finance, said: “This was an example of Roma Finance getting under the skin of the overall project rather than just looking at one aspect of the case. It was clear to us that since the property was being bought at a favourable price and that both the development and on-going business were viable, it was a development we could fund. In addition, by building a strong understanding of the borrower’s knowledge and vast experience of the equestrian industry, we were certain she’d make a success of the project and we were able to lend quickly where others had hesitated.”

The borrower commented: “Roma Finance provided a bespoke solution to enable us to purchase a great investment opportunity at a special price if we could complete quickly. They invested a great deal of time to ensure the loan was tailored to suit our specific requirements and completed to the vendor’s deadline, and ours. We could not have built the barn without their support for which I am very grateful. Many thanks.”

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